Our Legacy, the Swedish fashion label with a cult-like following, is making moves in the Chinese market despite a subdued retail market.
The label, which launched its e-commerce operations on Tmall a month ago, has recently teamed up with its trusted retail partner SKP-S to launch two six-month-long pop-up projects at Beijing and Chengdu simultaneously.
SKP-S is the younger-positioned and experiential retail space owned by SKP, one of the world’s most profitable department stores.
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The pop-ups coincided with the launch of Our Legacy’s latest fall 2024 collection. In both Chengdu and Beijing, Our Legacy’s stripped-back yet highly recognizable retail corner at SKP-S will run through March.
In Shanghai, another crucial retail market, Our Legacy has a retail kiosk within the multibrand retail store Maison Dongliang that soft-launched last week during Shanghai Fashion Week.
According to Richardos Klarén, Our Legacy’s chief executive officer, the brand’s China launch took a solid three to four years to fully simmer and take shape.
“We’ve already done a pop-up with them [SKP-S] a couple of years ago,” said Klarén. “It was a really successful experience, good sales. So, when we had this opportunity to work with them again, we both wanted to push for something different. This time, there will also be the possibility to extend or make them permanent,” said Klarén.
“This slow pop-up format suits us really well,” continued Klarén. “We can just put in our design concept, which is quite developed, and then we can just tweak it to any sort of space that we will get, where we can really show our world, our legacy, our brand experience in quite a simple format,” added Klarén.
“Eventually, we also want to open our own retail stores, but that’s very capital-intensive and sort of complex to do in a new market,” added Klarén.
Our Legacy’s SKP-S slow pop-ups are part of the luxury department store’s Station S program. The project was initially launched in 2019 and has hosted around 46 pop-ups, each lasting a month or two. According to a buyer at SKP-S, the length of SKP-S’ pop-up model is dictated by the amount of retail content the brand is able to produce. In the case of Our Legacy, the pop-up will host monthly drops and themed projects from its Work Shop line.
To celebrate the launch in Beijing, SKP-S gathered a community of local press, influencers and loyal fans to feast on a roasted duck at the store, echoing the new collection’s theme of an impromptu house party.
After Chengdu and Beijing, Klarén and team concluded their China market visit in Shanghai, where they hosted an intimate gathering at Fu 1088, a traditional Shanghainese restaurant located within a 1920s Spanish villa. The night wrapped up with a performance by Halamuji and Kian, both local indie musicians.
China is currently Our Legacy’s fifth-largest market, where it has around 35 to 40 wholesale accounts. Globally speaking, Asia is now the label’s largest market, followed by the U.S. Outside of China, the label counts three shops-in-shop at Hyundai-owned department stores in Seoul.
